Jesse G. Reyes
Appellate Justice – Illinois Appellate Court
First District, Fourth Division

Jesse G. Reyes is currently a Justice on the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, Fourth Division.

Justice Reyes previously served on the Court’s Executive Committee, as the Presiding Justice of the Fifth Division, and as the former chair of the First District’s Settlement Conference Committee. He has been a member of the judiciary since December 1997, having previously served as both an associate judge and elected judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County. His previous judicial assignments have included the Chancery Division’s Mortgage Foreclosure/Mechanics Lien Section, Domestic Violence Court and the Sixth Municipal District. He also served on a number of Circuit Court committees during his tenure on the trial court.

Before his election to the bench, Justice Reyes was employed with the Law Department of the Chicago Board of Education and represented the Board in litigation matters, and was responsible for the development and implementation of policies and procedures pertaining to school reform. Prior to joining the Board of Education, he was a Senior Supervising Attorney with the Corporation Counsel’s Office, representing the City of Chicago in complex civil litigation matters in state and federal court.

Justice Reyes has been found “Highly Qualified” to serve on the Supreme Court by the Illinois State Bar Association, Chicago Bar Association, Asian American Bar Association, the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois, and the Puerto Rican Bar Association in the 2020 Illinois Supreme Court elctiomns.

Justice Reyes has served the judiciary in the following capacity:

• Diversity Scholarship Foundation – Founding Member and Current President
• Illinois Judges Association – Former President
• Illinois Judges Foundation – Founding Member and Former President
• John Marshall Law School Alumni Association – Former President
• Latin American Bar Association – Former President
• Hispanic National Bar Association – Former Regional President
• Chicago Bar Association – Former Secretary
• Assembly of the Illinois State Bar Association – Former Member
• DuPage County Bar Association – Honorary Board Member
• Asian American Bar Association – Former Honorary Board Member
• Filipino American Bar Association – Former Honorary Board Member

Justice Reyes is the recipient of several awards for his distinguished service to the bench and bar, with special recognition for his efforts in promoting diversity in the legal profession, including the Justice John Paul Stevens Award, CBA; The Charles E. Freeman Judicial Merit Award, Decalogue Society of Lawyers; Vanguard Award, HLAI; Distinguished Jurist Award, LAGBAC; Hon. John Crowley Award, LAP; Mary Heftel Hooton Award, WBAI, such to name few.

Justice Reyes received his B.A. from the University of Illinois at Chicago and his J.D. from John Marshall Law School.